The Heavy Tank Mark VIII
(Liberty Tank or International) was originally meant to be a joint
Anglo-American-French tank that would have been used in large numbers
if the war had continued into 1919, but that was eventually built in
small numbers in British and American versions.

USS Stringham (DD-83/ APD-6) was
a Wickes class destroyer that saw limited service towards the end of
the First World War, before serving throughout most of the Pacific
Campaign of the Second World War as a fast transport.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

BT Fast Tank - The Red Army's Cavalry Tank 1931-1945, Steven J. Zaloga.
Looks at the fast BT series tanks, based on the American Christie
tank. Produced in vast numbers in the Soviet Union in several main
variants, the BT tanks were used in Spain, against Japan on the
Mongolian border and during the Winter War, before being destroyed in
equally vast numbers during the first year of the Great Patriotic War.
Traces the development of the Soviet version of the tank, the many
versions produced, and its mainly unimpressive combat career.
[read full review]

The Gempei War 1180-85 - The Great Samurai Civil War, Stephen Turnbull.
Looks at the civil war between the Taira and Minamoto clans that saw
the samurai replace the Imperial Court as the main source of power in
Japan, and ended with the establishment of the Shogunate, the system of
military rule that lasted for nearly seven hundred years. A fascinating
account of this crucial conflict that helps make sense of a war that
sometimes appears as a collection of unconnected battles involving a
series of different commanders.
[read full review]

German Half-Tracks and Wheeled Vehicles 1939-1945, Alexander Lüdeke.
Looks at the armoured cars and half-tracks used by the German Army
before and during the Second World War, focusing on the development and
technical descriptions of each type and its major variants. Each type
gets one or two pages, supported by photos of the vehicle. A useful
short reference book on these essential vehicles, covering both the
many types developed in Germany and the smaller number of captured
vehicles pressed into service.
[read full review]

Friday, February 24, 2017

The combat of Weissenfels (29 April 1813) was
one of the first clashes between Napoleon's new army of 1813 and the
advancing Prussian and Russian forces, which by late April had reached
the Saale River in Saxony.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

The battle of Hermeum (354 or 353 BC)
was a Phocian victory over the Boeotians (Third Sacred War), which
followed a brief Phocian intervention in Thessaly that saw them inflict
two rare battlefield defeats on Philip II

The siege of Tobruk (10 April-16/17 December 1941)
saw a beleaguered Allied garrison hold out for eight months against
German and Italian attacks, and helped prevent Rommel taking full
advantage of his victory in his first offensive, which had seen him
conquer Cyrenaica only a few weeks after it had fallen to the British

The Supermarine Sea King
was an amphibian scout and fighter aircraft that was produced in two
variants, but didn't receive any orders. It did become the basis for
the Sea Lion racing aircraft, and as the Sea Lion II won the 1922
Schneider Trophy.

Monday, February 20, 2017

USS Gregory (DD-82/ APD-3)
was a Wickes class destroyer that saw service late in the First World
War, and was then converted into a fast transport. She was sunk while
carrying out her new role off Guadalcanal in September 1942.

USS Sigourney (DD-81)
was a Wickes class destroyer that operated from Brest during the First
World War, and served with the Royal Norwegian Navy and Royal Navy as
HMS Newport during the Second World War.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Brutus - Caesar's Assassin, Kirsty Corrigan.
A well balanced biography of Brutus, one of the more consistent
defenders of the Roman Republic, and famously one of Caesar's assassins
on the Ides of March. Paints a picture of a man of generally high
moral standards (with some flaws in financial matters), but also an
over-optimistic plotter, who failed to make any realistic plans for the
aftermath of the assassination. Does a good job of tracing Brutus's
fairly obscure early years, as well as distinguishing between later
legends and historically likely events
[read full review]

Stout Hearts: The British and Canadians in Normandy 1944, Ben Kite.
Looks in detail at the role of each element in the British and
Canadian military machine during the Normandy Campaign, including each
aspect of the ground forces from the infantry to the armour,
intelligence, reconnaissance and medical services, as well as the air
support and the fire power provided by the massive Allied fleets off
the Normandy coast. A very useful companion to narrative accounts of
the campaign, helping to explain how the British and Canadians managed
to overcome the determined German resistance on their front
[read full review]

British and German Battlecruisers - Their Development and Operations, Michele Cosentino & Ruggero Stanglini.
A useful volume that covers the development, design and construction
of British and German battlecruisers, their wartime deployments and
both side's plans for the next generation of battlecruisers, of which
only HMS Hood was ever completed. Having all of this material in a
single volume gives a much better overview of the two Navy's
battlecruisers, their advantages and flaws, and their performance in
and out of battle. Concludes with a look at other nation's
battlecruisers and battlecruiser designs
[read full review]

Friday, February 17, 2017

The siege of Glogau (15 March-27 May 1813)
was a rare example of a successful French defense of one of the
isolated fortresses left behind by the retreat from Poland and eastern
Germany at the start of 1813, and saw a sizable garrison hold out for
three months before the siege was lifted in the aftermath of the battle
of Bautzen.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

The 20mm quad AA Tank, Skink,
was the most successful attempt to mount an anti-aircraft gun on the
chassis of a Sherman tank, but only a handful were produced, and their
main use was against ground targets.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Rommel's First Offensive (24 March-30 May 1941)
saw him push a weakened British army out of Cyrenaica, and all the way
to the Egyptian border, undoing all of the British conquests at the
start of 1941 and setting a pattern for the desert war that would last
until the second battle of El Alamein late in 1942.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

US Navy Carrier Aircraft vs IJN Yamato Class Battleships, Pacific Theatre 1944-45, Mark Stille.
Looks at the two battles that resulted in the sinking of Yamato and
Musashi, the two most powerful battleships ever completed, and the US
aircraft, weapons and tactics that sank them. Interesting to bring
together all of the relevant technical histories – the ships
themselves, Japanese anti-aircraft guns, the US aircraft and their main
weapons – in a single volume, followed by detailed accounts of the air
attacks that sank the two battleships
[read full review]

Sailors on the Rocks - Famous Royal Navy Shipwrecks, Peter C. Smith.
Looks at a long series of Royal Naval shipwrecks, from the loss of
HMS Coronation in 1691 to the grounding of HMS Nottingham in 2002.
Covers the background histories of the ships involved, their actions in
the period before their loss, the lead-up to the loss, the rescue
attempts and the aftermath of the loss. An interesting book that covers
a great deal of ground
[read full review]

Alesia - The Final Struggle for Gaul, Nic Fields.
A useful history of the siege and associated battles that secured
Caesar's conquest of Gaul and ended Vercingetorix's revolt, the first
(and only) time that the Gallic tribes united against Caesar. Starts
with a history of Vercingetorix's revolt and the earlier failed siege of
Gergova, before moving onto the climatic siege of Alesia, the massive
Gallic relief effort and its defeat by Caesar. A good account of this
siege, supported by excellent maps showing the besieged town and its
surroundings.
[read full review]

Tuesday, February 07, 2017

The siege of Perinthus (340-339 BC)
was an unsuccessful attempt by Philip II of Macedon to defeat a
wavering ally, and was conducted alongside an equally unsuccessful siege
of Byzantium. Both sieges took place in the period just before the
Fourth Sacred War.

Monday, February 06, 2017

The Supermarine Seal
was an amphibian reconnaissance and fleeting spotting aircraft that
served as the prototype for the successful Supermarine Seagull, which
was itself the basis of the more famous Supermarine Walrus.

Sunday, February 05, 2017

Critical Convoy Battles of WWII - Crisis in the North Atlantic, March 1943, Jurgen Rohwer.
Focuses on the successful U-boat attacks on convoys HX.229 and
SC.122, looking at how earlier convoys were able to avoid attack, why
those particular convoys were hit so hard, the methods being used by
both sides, and their impact on the longer term result of the Battle of
the Atlantic. A useful study, despite its age (first published in
1977), in particular because of its focus on the successful German
attacks of March 1943, which thus get the attention they deserve rather
than being seen as a precursor to the Allied victories later in the
summer.
[read full review]

The Great Siege of Malta - The Epic Battle between the Ottoman Empire and the Knights of St. John, Bruce Ware Allen.
Looks at one of the pivotal conflicts of the Sixteenth Century, when a
massive Ottoman army attempted to capture Malta, then the main base
for the Knights of St. John. This excellent history traces events from
the earlier siege of Rhodes, where the Knights were defeated, through
the intervening years of intermittent conflict, and on to the Great
Siege itself, covering both the fighting on Malta and the attempts to
raise the siege
[read full review]

By the Knife, Steve Partridge .
A historical novel set largely at sea in the middle of the eighteenth
century, following two intertwined lives from their formative years in
England, to their repeated encounters across the oceans. Written
across a very broad canvas, from the Caribbean to the west coast of
Africa, Britain to the Mediterranean, and with a good feel for the
naval warfare and general lawlessness of the period.
[read full review]